Remember the flak Wilson used to take in this market for calling out young centre Nazem Kadri? Time and again, Wilson publicly asked more from the talented forward, demanding that Kadri play with more consistently at both ends of the ice. Now look what’s happening. Last week, current Leafs coach Randy Carlyle was doing the same thing, and not for the first time. Kadri has tremendous skill, and seems to be a good kid, but his inconsistency (and sometimes his defensive play) is a problem. Heading into Tuesday’s game at the Air Canada Centre against the New York Islanders, the London native had collected one point in his last nine games and there was talk that Carlyle might demote him to the third line and cut his ice time. But to his credit, Kadri responded with a big effort on Tuesday, and was Toronto’s best player in a 5-3 loss against the Islanders. Playing between Mason Raymond and Joffrey Lupul on the second line, Kadri picked up an assist on the Leafs’ second goal by Raymond as well as on Lupul’s goal in the third, and created a number of other offensive chances, while also going an impressive 79% at the faceoff circle, winning 11 of 14. He also delivered a couple of decent body checks and was up to his old tricks drawing penalties. Kadri has to put forth efforts like the one on Tuesday more often. It’s his skill and promise, but lack of consistency, that drives coach’s nuts. And not just mean, old Ron Wilson.

O CAPTAIN, THEIR CAPTAIN

Could Islanders’ captain John Tavares — who was named to the Olympic team earlier on Wednesday — be any hotter? Tavares has points in his last seven games, including three goals and two assists on Monday night in a 7-3 win over the Dallas Stars, and three assists in New York’s win on Wednesday against the Leafs ... And speaking of non-Leafs playing well, New York defenceman Calvin de Haan picked up two assists against the Stars for his first NHL points and scored his first NHL goal against the Leafs. Also made a nice play in coming back to check Paul Ranger in front on a Toronto chance.

ON THE TORONTO BENCH

Newly acquired defenceman Tim Gleason made his Toronto debut, playing alongside captain Dion Phaneuf with Carl Gunnarsson out with an elbow injury. Gleason was a minus-2 and, according to the stats, did not deliver a single hit. His defencemate, Phaneuf, struggled big-time. Was a minus-3 and deflected in de Haan’s goal ... James van Riemsdyk now has one goal in his past 11 games ... First line centre Tyler Bozak, who scored Toronto’s first goal, has two goals and four assists in the four games since he returned from an oblique injury, extending his point streak to eight games.

AROUND THE RINK

The Leafs like to say that they’re on top of the game stats more than some other teams in the NHL. That may be true, but in the first period, Phaneuf coughed up the puck twice (blatantly), including being robbed of the puck by Tavares behind Toronto’s net, and according to the official stats, he had zero turnovers in that frame. The Leafs website also had, at one point in the third, three different Islanders scoring New York’s third goal, Frans Nielsen, who actually scored it, Tavares and Kyle Okposo. Eventually it was fixed ... ACC organist Jimmy Holmstrom serenaded the Islanders, pre-game, with Island Girl by Elton John ... Nice round of applause when the crowd was informed of Nikolai Kulemin’s selection to Team Russia for the Sochi Olympics .... Canadian alpine skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis, a winner of three World Cup first-place finishes, sang the opening bar of The Hockey Song by Stompin’ Tom Connors in the second period. Osborne-Paradis and the rest of the Sochi-bound ski team will be named in Toronto on Wednesday. At Casa Loma of all places ... Okposo’s wife gave birth to their first child on Monday and the Islanders winger celebrated with New York’s first goal against the Leafs ... The Islanders blocked 10 shots, and lead the NHL with 711.